Nan Joesten is a highly respected leader in the legal and business communities, having been a successful trial lawyer with the firm Farella Braun & Martel in San Francisco since 1997. She has represented a wide array of companies in resolving commercial and intellectual property disputes, including issues of patent infringement, copyright, and trademark, and was made a partner in the firm in 2005.

As an attorney, she has been a trusted advisor to clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, with a track record of superb writing, oral advocacy, negotiation, judgment, and leadership in effectively resolving commercial disputes.

She also has been an advocate for the advancement of women in the legal profession as well as in her firm. She served as national co-chair of the American Bar Association’s Woman Advocate Committee, the women trial lawyers’ group within the 65,000-member Litigation Section. She was also chosen to co-chair the Litigation Section’s 2012 annual meeting.

She recently founded a business consulting firm, Rapid Evolution, which helps clients achieve better results through stronger professional development and leadership training. She remains “of counsel” to Farella Braun & Martel, while shifting her focus to business consulting.

Before obtaining her law degree, she worked for Procter & Gamble as a manufacturing manager and brand manager from 1982 to 1991. As a manufacturing engineer at P&G, she supervised surfactant manufacturing in Kansas City and high-speed paper lines in Modesto, California, and as a brand manager she led the test market and national launch for CheerFree detergent, and oversaw a multi-functional team to deliver product and advertising to market on schedule.

She earned a bachelor’s in chemical engineering at CU-Boulder in 1982, and a juris doctor from the University of California Berkeley in 1997. She has served on the college’s Engineering Advisory Council since 1999, including chairing the fundraising committee for the biotechnology building and serving on the executive committee and task force on student retention.

She also is an active alumna of the University of California, Berkeley Law School, having served on the board of directors for the Boalt Hall Alumni Association for several years, including two years as president. She was elected to the Order of the Coif, a national academic honorary society, and is a recipient of the Boalt Hall 2010 Young Alumni Achievement Award for outstanding professional achievement within 15 years of graduation.